i was wondering that too, I'm dying to read them all now.

 

Dull is exactly the word I would use. And its really sad Drift didn't have more going. He's a great character with a lot of potential. His departure from the Cepies could have been a great ride. I liked Lockdown showing up, but again, no epic show down really. Nothing that really stuck in memory anyway. I would have written it as his leaving being somewhat dangerous, the decepticons calling him traitor, a good battle for his escape to showcase why he's a bad ass, and then a bit of a road chase style story through space, with him hiding out, trying to find his way, Lockdown chasing him and Drift finding purpose on the road through some interesting worlds. it would be a good chance to showcase some fringe bots or even bring in new ones that aren't really on anyone else's side, sort of like trading posts or encampments or even neutral settlements full of all manner of bot, like a Mos Eisley Cantina. Force Drift to make some real hard decisions. Not just stashing him on some world where there's a group that won't fight even though they want to, but their leader won't let them, but don't worry, Drift will start the fight for you and win... I've seen that plot in too many fantasy stories, games, comics, cartoons, everywhere.

Glad to hear AHM has some good to it. Obviously I'm going to read it anyway to catch up, but its good to know where to put my expectations.

I basically view Furman in a similar light. When I started in on the Collections, I was like, hey, this ain't half bad, i was expecting way worse. But then the narrative got fuzzy, there was a lot of planet hopping, which I enjoyed that they tried that (especially Stormbringer) but the why and purpose was often lost. There was definitely a lack of definition between characters a lot of the time. The writers have to be careful, the bots aren't just plug n play Vehicons.

EDIT: Btw, just checked up on Spotlight Prime again: that was, even though I liked the Prime gets dissillusioned plot, they started talking about original arks and Nova wanting to expand territory and he wasn't all he was cracked up to be. That was REALLY hard to digest so quickly. Now I'm reading them in the Collections so I'm not reading them in the order they were published obviously, did that come as out of no where as it seemed? Because they're talking about the Megs invasion up until then, then there was the Stormbringer thing and all that but suddenly they're talking about an ancient history like we were kind of supposed to already know about it and giving little to know exposition as they just throw out bombs of info (to Prime, not so much to us).

 

Here is where the original bios are posted: Who's Who in the Transformers Universe

 

I know I'm sort of geek this way, but I have a pretty encyclopedic knowledge of those old Budiansky profiles, particularly for the first 4 years or so. Seeing as how it's a paying job, a TF writer should probably aspire to that degree of nerdiness at least. I really think that any TF writer should have a copy of the old Transformers Universe sitting right next to his writing desk (or bookmarked online at least). It is, after all, the bible

And there it is , maybe there's a few people here that expect characters that we played with as kids or saw in the G1 cartoon have a degree of individuality . Is that wrong to expect this ? Is it wrong to demand of the comics we shell money out for that the chacters contained therein are not interchangeable ? I don't think so , were talking about transformers here . There is deffinely a geek factor .... As said before Rampage is the tazmaninan devil with guns , Onslaught is the military commander of a semi elite team as much or more so then Impactor . How have they been so miscast ? There words misspoken . I expect ( perhaps I'm alone here ) to see Schrapnel repeat his words , Soundwave to be tall dark and gruesome , and wheelie talk in dated 80's rhymes ? And why not ??? What is wrong with having the characters be represented by previous representations to connect all the dots ? Wheelie is being played like this now and who liked wheelie when we were kids? Not many on my play ground I can tell you that .

Smog might be taking flak a little for his posts but 90% of the time his expectations should be as ours . The simplest most easy thing a writter of a TF book can do is respect the material to a sacred history to devoted fans who buy there material and are expected to for 12 months or more . Alot of IDWs work in the last 12 months aside from LSOTW and ironhide is totally disposable , they didn't even pay attention to the subplots in Coda ? THAT WAS THE FREAKING SET UP FOR ONGOING !!! How is this possible ? Apathy on behalf of the writter . Why shouldn't someone raise there hand up during all this and ask if IDWs team of creators are possibly doing drugs or just simply asleep at the wheel to approve such lack luster stories .... Some unusual art and diologue ( I'm looking at you hearts of darkness ) ( you totally failed btw ) This a company trying to be as successful as possible and the people that buy these books are as hard core nerdy geeky as possible and yes we pay attention to Huffer bitching , Gears whining , Tracks being commander wax 'n buff , Onslaught using the word " Buffoon " Brawls " I will not be deprived of this fun ! " And Breakdowns "alright everyone this is a hold up I mean, a take over I mean, we're taking over this Boat !"

Instead of anyone in there places going " your a idiot " " uh yes I'll do it and I mean it " and " zzZZZZzzzzZZZzzz"

We're the fans and we deserve the effort and to be catered too . We deserve the effort and research and homework placed into the comics just as we demand the same from the toys that we buy that keep all this awesome stuff cycling through . That can't be wrong .

 

Now that I think about I guess I like costa when he does small cast things, Like I really enjoyed the Ironhide mini that was fun unlike the Drift which was just vanilla. And yeah this particuilar page has been alot of fun.  I think what I'd like to see is multpile TF squads all over the universe kinda like Wreckers and we could spend three issues with one crew then mabye with another or diffrent factions from diffrent points of view. Give them a chance to get away from OP & Megs do their own thing rather than just incapacitating the big bad two with kidding and near death stunts.

 

Dang, ya beat me to it!  

That site is really handy. It covers pretty much all the Budiansky Tech Spec long forms, even the later ones (my Marvel TF Universe trade paperback only goes as far as 1986).

There are a couple of lost entries (the Terrorcons, Whirl, Roadbuster, Deluxe Insecticons) that are either non-existent or to be found on other websites, but aside from those, it's all there.

If you're looking for the stats numbers from the Tech Spec, there's Botch's site... I prefer the original scans because some sites take some liberties with some of the Spec numbers when the graph is vague.

Yeah, those humans... they kind of drop out of sight very abruptly. In fact Furman was forced to wrap up his already expansive and increasingly complicated story arc(s) a bit prematurely, so there's a reason that the end of his run feels a bit rushed. That's when things regarding continuity start to get a bit fuzzy around IDW.

Oh, I think AHM and McCarthy's run are fairly straightforward, and mostly coherent. It has its ups and downs though... some characterizations and developments I REALLY liked, while other things felt self-indulgent or overly facile. For better or worse, he does focus more on personalities and conversation, even in quiet times when nothing much seems to be happening, and I always gave him credit for trying to go that way.

McCarthy also did the Blurr and Cliffjumper Spotlights, as I recall. I think both are fairly cliched, utterly predictable stories (like the entire Drift mini)... but there is an emphasis on the characters that appeals to me.

I know what you mean. It made the story feel somehow small and overly contained. Would have liked to see them go further in the 4 issues they were given. Dang... or was it six?

Glad to hear AHM has some good to it. Obviously I'm going to read it anyway to catch up, but its good to know where to put my expectations.

Nah, that Spotlight was just a big info-dump and an excuse to introduce Monstructor, who remains irrelevant pretty much from that point onward. It's the kind of thing that should have been integrated into the ongoing series, rather than isolated as a "Spotlight".

Better, even, since Onslaught is actually expected to bring the rest of his team back ALIVE. Impactor has trouble with that one.  

zmog